MAP02: Loading Bay (Threshold of Pain)

MAP02: Loading Bay is the second level of Threshold of Pain. It was designed by John Gourley (scalliano) and uses the music track "The Broken Ones," composed by Aubrey Hodges for the Sony PlayStation port of Doom. This level contains a secret exit leading to MAP11: Frantic. The par time defined in MAPINFO is 20:00.

Blue keycard
Take the shotgun on your left, then turn right at the junction and follow the passage round to a door. Go through it to a large chamber with several enemies including one or more arachnotrons at ground level, then turn right and follow the ledge round to another door in the west wall. Go through this door and go left or right around a cross-shaped structure, passing several zombies and Hell knights on your way to a switch at the west end of the room.

Pressing the switch lowers the cross-shaped structure to reveal another knight, or four on Hurt Me Plenty (HMP) skill level or higher. When all the revealed knights have been killed, the bars blocking the doorway to the south will be lowered. Go through this doorway and ride the lift up to a room with a blue column - watch out for chaingunners ambushing you from either side, and one or two revenants waiting behind the column. Head east down a staircase to another door, taking the health and armor bonuses on the way.

Go through the door to find a large chamber - the blue keycard is sitting on a step in the middle of this chamber, but taking it will open two alcoves in the north and south walls containing numerous enemies, including two zombies armed with chainsaws.

Red keycard
Once the monsters are dead, take the shotgun on the east side of the room and go through either of the doors in the east wall. Kill the monsters waiting behind the doors then turn left to kill two arachnotrons; once the enemies are dead, take the chaingun then press the switch at the north end of the hall to open the door next to it. The door will take you back to the room south of the crate area, where one or more nightmare cacodemons have appeared. Kill them before climbing the stairs and following the ledge back to the crate room.

Return to the start point and head north down another passage to a door with blue key markings. Kill two knights waiting behind the door and take the items here, then head west through another door. Follow the wide passage to a large silver door, which is guarded by several enemies including nightmare imps. Go through the large door to another area with crates, then turn left and head up the stairs to a ledge with two more doors. Go through either door to reach the red keycard area.

The red key is on a pillar at the west end of this area. When you enter, look left or right to see doors in the north-east and south-east corners - you must go through both doors and follow the passages behind them to a switch. Once both switches have been pressed, the pillar holding the red key will lower so you can pick it up.

Exit
With the red key, return to the previous room with the crates and head north through a wide door with red key markings. Go past a raised ledge with imps and open the door in the north wall to reach an arena-like hall. You will need to fight several waves of monsters to open the exit door.
 * 1) Kill two or four mancubi on the platform in the center of the arena.
 * 2) Kill two or four arachnotrons that are released from the east and west sides of the room
 * 3) Kill ten or eleven imps that are released from the north-west alcove (zombiemen and shotgun guys will also be released from the south-west alcove).
 * 4) Kill one to three cacodemons that are released from the north-east alcove, along with a pain elemental.
 * 5) Kill one or two nightmare cacodemons that are released from the south-east alcove, along with one or two barons of Hell. Revenants will also be released on HMP or higher skill levels.

Once the nightmare cacodemons are killed, the exit door at the north end of the arena will open. Take any remaining supplies from the arena, then go through the exit door and press the switch to be taken to MAP03: Recycling Plant.

Secret exit
There are 19 barrels scattered throughout the level. When they have all been destroyed, the message "A door has opened somewhere" will be displayed. Return to the start point to find that the entrance door has opened - go through it and press the switch here to be taken to MAP11: Frantic.

Other points of interest
After passing through the door south of the outdoor crate area, turn left and drop off the ledge to find a chaingun and a box of bullets on a small stack of boxes.

Taking the blue key opens two alcoves to the north and south containing enemies. The north alcove contains armor and a box of shotgun shells, while the south alcove contains a berserk pack and a box of bullets.

Secrets

 * 1) From the start, go down the steps into the outdoor crate area then turn right and jump up the crates in front of you. From here, jump east to another stack of crates and climb on top of them to discover a megaarmor in a hole. (sector 48)
 * 2) From secret #1, go back to the steps and walk north between two tall crates then turn right to find a small crate that you can use to climb up the stack. When you reach the top, jump west to another stack of crates and make your way to the backpack in the north-west corner. (sector 80)
 * 3) From secret #2, jump east across the crates until you reach the stack in the north-east corner. From here, step on to another crate to the south to find a super shotgun. (sector 95)
 * 4) After entering the large room south of the outdoor crate area, you will see a ledge ahead of you with imps and nightmare imps. Next to this ledge is a gargoyle switch high above the floor - shoot it with any impact weapon to open three alcoves in the east wall, releasing spectres and nightmare spectres. Enter any of the alcoves to trigger the secret (sector 151); the middle alcove contains a rocket launcher and the south alcove contains armor.
 * 5) After passing through the red key door, jump on to the raised area with imps and head north to jump to a gray crate. Step east to drop off the crate, then crouch into a crawlspace containing health and armor bonuses. (sector 270)
 * 6) When you reach the end of secret #5, press use on the east wall to lower a lift with a box of rockets. (sector 293)
 * 7) From secret #6, let the lift carry you up to a hidden area with armor. Press the switch here then backtrack to the room past the red key door. Part of the west wall has opened to reveal a Doomsphere. (sector 296)
 * 8) In the room containing the red key door, stand on the ledge at the west end of the room and jump east to a crate between two metal pillars, then jump east again to a stack of crates. Drop into the middle of this stack to find armor guarded by an imp. (sector 412)
 * 9) From secret #8, jump east to another set of crates then climb south over a tan crate to find a soulsphere. (sector 424)
 * 10) The room containing the secret exit counts as a secret. (sector 4)

Current records
There are no records for this map as of July 7, 2013.

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level, not including monsters spawned via scripts:

Trivia

 * The method for opening the secret exit, as well as its location, are a homage to MAP01: Staging Area from Doom 64. In that level, the player must also destroy every barrel to temporarily reveal a secret exit to MAP32: Hectic by the start point.